Artificial Intelligence (AI) overlords are a common trope in science-fiction dystopias, but the reality looks much more prosaic. The technologies of artificial intelligence are already pervading many aspects of democratic government, affecting our lives in ways both large and small. This has occurred largely without our notice or consent. The result is a government incrementally transformed by AI rather than the singular technological overlord of the big screen. Let us begin with the executive branch. One of the most important functions of this branch of government is to administer the law, including the human services on which so many Americans rely. Many of these programs have long been operated by a mix of humans and machines, even if not previously using modern AI tools such as ...

Democracy is colliding with the technologies of artificial intelligence. Judging from the audience reaction at the recent World Forum on Democracy in Strasbourg, the general expectation is that democracy will be the worse for it. We have another narrative. Yes, there are risks to democracy from AI, but there are also opportunities. We have just published the book Rewiring Democracy: How AI will Transform Politics, Government, and Citizenship. In it, we take a clear-eyed view of how AI is undermining confidence in our information ecosystem, how the use of biased AI can harm constituents of democracies and how elected officials with authoritarian tendencies can use it to consolidate power. But we also give positive examples of how AI is transforming democratic governance and politics for the better...

Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way. In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social media into his political campaign: Barack Obama. His campaign’s use of social media was so bracingly innovative, so impactful, that it was viewed by journalist David Talbot and others as the strategy that enabled the first term Senator to win the White House...

Listen to the Audio on NextBigIdeaClub.com Below, co-authors Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders share five key insights from their new book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? AI can be used both for and against the public interest within democracies. It is already being used in the governing of nations around the world, and there is no escaping its continued use in the future by leaders, policy makers, and legal enforcers. How we wire AI into democracy today will determine if it becomes a tool of oppression or empowerment...

My latest book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, will be published in just over a week. No reviews yet, but you can read chapters 12 and 34 (of 43 chapters total). You can order the book pretty much everywhere, and a copy signed by me here. Please help spread the word. I want this book to make a splash when it’s public. Leave a review on whatever site you buy it from. Or make a TikTok video. Or do whatever you kids do these days. Is anyone a Slashdot contributor? I’d like the book to be announced there...

Two years ago, Americans anxious about the forthcoming 2024 presidential election were considering the malevolent force of an election influencer: artificial intelligence. Over the past several years, we have seen plenty of warning signs from elections worldwide demonstrating how AI can be used to propagate misinformation and alter the political landscape, whether by trolls on social media, foreign influencers, or even a street magician. AI is poised to play a more volatile role than ever before in America’s next federal election in 2026. We can already see how different groups of political actors are approaching AI. Professional campaigners are using AI to accelerate the traditional tactics of electioneering; organizers are using it to reinvent how movements are built; and citizens are using it both to express themselves and amplify their side’s messaging. Because there are so few rules, and so little prospect of regulatory action, around AI’s role in politics, there is no oversight of these activities, and no safeguards against the dramatic potential impacts for our democracy...

We are nearly one year out from the 2026 midterm elections, and it’s far too early to predict the outcomes. But it’s a safe bet that artificial intelligence technologies will once again be a major storyline. The widespread fear that AI would be used to manipulate the 2024 US election seems rather quaint in a year where the president posts AI-generated images of himself as the pope on official White House accounts. But AI is a lot more than an information manipulator. It’s also emerging as a politicized issue. Political first-movers are adopting the technology, and that’s opening a ...

TRUE CHANGE WON’T COME FROM THE BALLOT BUT FROM SUSTAINED, PEOPLE-POWERED MOVEMENTS ~ Andrew J Boyer ~ Two recent developments have jolted voters out of despair on both sides of the Atlantic: Zohran Mamdani’s upset win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, and Zarah Sultana’s announcement that she will leave Labour to launch a new party with Jeremy Corbyn. Think-pieces will spring up about how these insurgents will finally listen to working people, and those who have felt utterly hopeless may feel a surge of relief and optimism—even if only briefly. For anarchists, this cycle is all too familiar. There is no denying that sympathetic politicians can deliver gains—minimum-wage increases, housing pledges or public-health reforms—but the system in which these office-seekers operate invariably snaps back into oppression, often with greater force. The key question is not which short-term reforms make headlines, but what abuses these new office-holders will permit once they secure institutional power. Since relocating to Britain in 2016, I’ve seen five different prime ministers assume office. I asked a half-dozen friends, “When did Britain last feel well-governed?” Every one glanced at the ground and came up blank. Even die-hard Labour supporters could not point to a single year when they felt in control. Brexit votes, U.S. presidential seasons, a global pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have each promised salvation, only to deliver deeper inequality and attrition. Politicians dangle hope, then enact the opposite of what people demanded. The United States plays a similar game, dressed in pageantry. Many rightly praise the Obama administration’s role in securing marriage equality in 2015—yet that same era saw record deportations, aggressive policing and drone strikes abroad, fuelling the conditions for today’s resurgent far right. Progressives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Talib rode the 2019–20 “big blue wave,” alongside fellow Democratic-Socialists like Zohran Mamdani, into Joe Biden’s presidency. CNN hailed the trifecta: White House, House of Representatives and Senate under one party’s control. Still, key victories remained unsealed: Roe v. Wade was not codified into federal law, deportations and police violence continued at alarming rates, and U.S. funds kept flowing to Israel’s assault on Palestinians. Across the pond, Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 Labour campaign—built on anti-austerity themes like free education, social housing and expanded welfare—resonated more deeply than Bernie Sanders ever did in 2016. His manifesto hit all the right marks, yet Brexit-obsessed Tory and Labour centrists swiftly side-lined him. By the 2019 general election, Labour turnout plunged to its lowest since 1935. Corbyn’s departure paved the way for Keir Starmer, whose centrist pivot has included an open purge of Labour’s socialist wing. This internal cleansing underscores how the system preserves itself, no matter how principled or skilful the leader. Politics is quintessentially relational. Whether we cast ballots on televised election nights, debate policy in neighbourhood assemblies or refine personal ideologies in conversation with friends, we place faith in others to safeguard our material realities. That leap of hope is intimate—but also precarious, because it trades direct action for the promise of representation. If we accept that politics will always carry emotional weight, the question becomes: where should we stake our hopes? On the fast-paced, high-stakes spectacle of elections, or on slow, organic movement-building? The former resembles an arcade claw machine: patrons—often children—feed coins, maneuver the claw, and occasionally win a plush prize, but most of the time the toy slips away. Casinos follow the same logic: gamblers know the odds favour the house, yet the thrill of the chase keeps them returning. In our 24-hour social-media climate, where hot takes and breaking news are one swipe away, the “chase versus reward” circuitry in our brains is even more tightly engaged by election cycles. This is not to brand voters as gullible. From elementary school onward, we learn to vote: first on class themes, then student body councils, and eventually local and national contests. Voting feels sacred because it is our primary civic ritual. Yet non-voters often face scorn and assumptions of apathy, when in reality many are active in mutual aid, tenants’ unions, direct action and other vital, non-electoral work. Some of history’s most significant change-makers operated outside the ballot box. If mainstream media treated community organising with the same fervour they reserve for politicians, our sense of viable alternatives might expand. As the saying goes, “Be tough on systems, soft on people.” Elections will always stir our emotions, and perhaps an independent Labour alternative or a Democratic-Socialist mayor of New York will achieve breakthroughs. Still, history warns that office-holders promising change from within will either moderate or be absorbed by the system’s self-preserving logic. If we seek lasting liberation, we must sustain people-powered movements that render oppressive structures obsolete—beyond the ballot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image: Radio Onda d’Urto CC BY-NC-ND The post Hopeful highs and electoral lows appeared first on Freedom News.

American democracy runs on trust, and that trust is cracking. Nearly half of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, question whether elections are conducted fairly. Some voters accept election results only when their side wins. The problem isn’t just political polarization—it’s a creeping erosion of trust in the machinery of democracy itself. Commentators blame ideological tribalism, misinformation campaigns and partisan echo chambers for this crisis of trust. But these explanations miss a critical piece of the puzzle: a growing unease with the digital infrastructure that now underpins nearly every aspect of how Americans vote...

Technology and innovation have transformed every part of society, including our electoral experiences. Campaigns are spending and doing more than at any other time in history. Ever-growing war chests fuel billions of voter contacts every cycle. Campaigns now have better ways of scaling outreach methods and offer volunteers and donors more efficient ways to contribute time and money. Campaign staff have adapted to vast changes in media and social media landscapes, and use data analytics to forecast voter turnout and behavior. Yet despite these unprecedented investments in mobilizing voters, overall trust in electoral health, democratic institutions, voter satisfaction, and electoral engagement has significantly declined. What might we be missing?...